Danny-Boy has opened up about playing troubled Lee Carter in EastEnders

In scenes aired at Christmas Lee had to be talked down from the top of a car park by a security guard.

The debt-ridden son of Queen Vic boss Mick had left a suicide note for his family which simply read: “I’m sorry”.

Speaking to the Sunday People the 25-year-old actor revealed: “People have approached me in the street and, very tentatively, whispered, ‘I hope you understand how powerful that storyline was – it’s helped me and family’.

“It makes me emotional and I’ve actually welled up and wept tears on three occasions. Because it’s an amazing feeling knowing that you’ve saved someone’s life.”

He also said that people contact him to tell him how much he has “helped them”.

Danny-Boy also revealed that although he has had a lot of support from fans, he has also suffered at the hands of Internet trolls, he said that “people have threatened to stab me” and that “it’s important to ignore them”.

On Friday night, fans saw Lee come back to Albert Square after he upped and left leaving wife Whitney a note at the end of the Valentine’s Day episode.

He arrived back to talk to his father Mick about his reasons for leaving before having a tearful conversation with Whitney, telling her why he was going to Dover and that she wouldn’t be coming with him.

Many had expected the Valentine’s Day episode to be his last after scenes showed him and Whitney put recent marriage troubles to one side as they went out for a romantic dinner to try and patch things up.

Lee left the restaurant, telling her he was going to get something for her.

But he didn’t come back, leaving Whitney to pay the bill and head home alone – where she realised her other half had done a runner.

She then saw a note propped up against the pillow containing Lee’s wedding ring and a note that read: “I’m sorry, I just don’t love you anymore.”

The BBC announced last August that actor Danny-Boy Hatchard, who has played Lee since 2014, would be leaving the soap.